UNDERTAKING AN MBA IS ABOUT EXPERIENCING THE WORLD AT A GREATER PACE, SAYS NEW SAINSBURY MANAGEMENT FELLOW
New Sainsbury Management Fellow Neel Gunturi says the MBA he is about to undertake will help him experience the world and expand his career opportunities.
Neel, 29, grew up in The Netherlands before studying mechanical engineering at the University of Southampton and embarking on a career working across engineering, manufacturing and operations.
His most recent role was working in the Republic of Ireland for Accenture as a commercial strategist bringing innovative technology solutions to market in life sciences, transport and healthcare.
And in a bid to improve his understanding of the decisions which govern business performance and growth, Neel is now one of the latest awardees of the Sainsbury Engineering Management Fellows scholarship and will be studying for an MBA at INSEAD in Paris.
He said: “I was speaking to someone who was taking a break to travel, and I think we’re coming at this from a similar place. We both want to experience the world at a greater pace – and that’s where the MBA comes in.
“It greatly expands the opportunity horizon.
“When I heard about the Sainsbury Management Fellows scholarship, it clearly stood out. The attraction was the community, which was quite active and entrepreneurial.
“The people and the network I’ll meet along the way will be vast – through INSEAD, the SMF, the wider EIBF team, the Royal Academy of Engineering and so on. The networks are huge.”
Neel is hoping to build on his problem-solving skills as an engineer and use them in the boardroom. And despite engineering being his first career choice, Neel’s commercial approach to work has always been a big part of his career.
He now laughs at the time he was once rejected from a graduate programme for being ‘too commercial’. He has been involved in startups, social enterprises and even worked as a student enterprise officer at the university where he graduated as a mechanical engineer, supporting other students to spin out their innovations.
He said: “I studied engineering, and did work specifically in engineering for a year and a bit, but I gravitated towards commercial roles early on.
“What engineering does give you though, is an approach to solving problems. The skills you learn as an engineer give you the tools and confidence to explore net-new problem spaces, understand constraints and define solutions.
“Commerciality has always been a big part of what I have done.
“I did a year in industry at university as I was studying engineering, but I wanted to experience it. Unfortunately, the factory I worked at had liquidity issues and I wanted to understand why. It matured the interest – in business performance – early on in my working life.”
Neel has been inspired by leadership at companies such as Octopus Group, Kensa Group, Multiverse and Google DeepMind. He hopes his MBA studies can guide him on the path to similar achievements and building teams to address and solve what he calls ‘meaningful problems’.
He added: “The end goal is to create equitable change. All of these businesses have scaled and created value for shareholders, but also for the wider public through great products and services. At the core of any business are the people, sometimes families working together to create magic. That’s a huge driver for me.”